Gina Kehr » Training Tips

STRENGTH TRAINING

Gina Kehr — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:58:41 +0000

As a swimmer in college, strength training was a must; but once that was over I never hit the gym again. Well, here I am, approaching 40, two kids later and let me tell you; I CAN TELL I NEED STRENGTH. I always knew it, but never had the time, but the time is NOW; I HAVE to make it to the gym at least 2 if not 3 times a week; it is now one of my priority workouts. I have been pretty consistent since January and I can tell the difference. My core is so much better, and when I run I don’t feel like I have what I labeled as “duck butt” as much. I work my my upper body, core, and legs in usually 3 (sometimes 2) sessions a week. The workouts are never the same and it only takes between 25-40 minutes a session. If I can not make it to the gym, I can do it at home. I do this by working with a trainer over the phone, it works great. It is super convenient, holds me accountable, flexible and workouts are fast and never the same. I would recommend him and the program to anyone who is interested.

Open Water Swim Tip

Gina Kehr — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:34:56 +0000

I use to put my head down and just jam when the gun went off. After I took my almost 3 year break, when I came back I decided to try and race and train smarter not harder. The hard training was working, but I seemed to be plateauing and I think I was working out too hard too much. Now I pick and choose my hard and do my easy, easier. With that said, same goes for my open water swim start; rather than putting my head down and going till I die, I strategically place myself and use my head up technique to find the holes and jump around until I find the right spot, then put my head down and go; it prevents me from going into oxygen debt. I have learned that there is no need for me to try and be the lead swimmer, but to just swim with the lead group, so if that means letting someone else (lots of people) do the work; so be it. You still have to do the sprint workouts and such to get the fitness, but you may want to think about other ways to swim to your potential then just sprinting till you die. I confirmed my theory at WF this past weekend as I somehow forgot my own advice and decided to just sprint from the start, which did put me in oxygen debt, which had the whole field pass me; and then once I worked through the tightness in my chest and arms, I managed to work my way back up through the field coming out 7th or so. The biggest confirmation though; was I was at least a minute off of where I thought I would be with my current fitness. Sometimes even us “pros” need to learn the hard way.

For your next race, try something different. If what you are doing is not working and you know you have the fitness, the other option can be strategy.

Let it go.

Training Tip: Make Your Workouts Count

Gina Kehr — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:07:30 +0000

I can’t tell you how many times I get asked “what can I be doing better in my training.” Most often than not people are doing a lot of training with no purpose; they are doing all the prescribed hours but there is no direction to what each workout is meant for.

The classic is “I run and ride with some friends but we just run and ride along.” Time to put some emphasis on your “friend workouts” and get everyone in gear. There are several types of workouts: recovery, aerobic, anaerobic, strength to name a few. Your “ride and run along” workouts should be considered a “recovery” workout.

Then the next time you ride or run with your friends make it a strength day, for example, bring them along for a hill repeat workout say 5-10 X 3 min lower cadence, rest 2 minutes. Every level can do it together because it is a more controlled environment, each person can pick their number of repeats that is good for them and then all meet at the end and ride home together.

Mix it up; each day should have some sort of focus even if it is recovery and always remember to schedule that day off